It’s clear why Sky selectively edited its Laura Pidcock interview. She smashed it.
It’s clear why Sky News and HuffPost misrepresented Sky‘s interview with shadow minister for business, energy and industrial strategy Laura Pidcock. Because she smashed it.
Along with Jeremy Corbyn and other senior Labour figures, Pidcock was attending the 135th Durham Miners’ Gala on 13 July. This annual event attracted around 200,000 people to honour the trade union movement.
Smashed it
At the event, the MP for North West Durham gave an interview to Sky. And she called out the corporate media’s “agenda”:
I didn’t say I can’t come here and talk about antisemitism. I said the media will bring that agenda here.
Academics at Media Reform Coalition have previously concluded that reporting across the corporate media on the matter has been a “disinformation paradigm”.
And Pidcock criticised the Sky reporter for failing to challenge Boris Johnson’s racist comments – “this is a potential prime minister, where are your questions about that?”
And while answering questions on antisemitism, Pidcock upheld the need for due process, saying Labour must have:
Read on...
a robust process and a fair process for the accused and the target.
Recently, Tom Watson and Keir Starmer have been calling for immediate expulsions for people accused of antisemitism.
Selective reporting
The issue is, Sky misrepresented Pidcock in its reporting. It only mentioned the part where Pidcock and her aide criticised the outlet for asking repeated questions about Labour and antisemitism. HuffPost also only reported on that aspect of the interview.
This reporting falsely made it appear as if Pidcock was refusing to answer any questions on Labour and antisemitism. Sky wrote that Pidcock criticised:
a Sky News correspondent for asking questions about the party’s antisemitism crisis.
On top of that, right-wing Labour MPs such as Wes Streeting circulated a shortened clip of the interview that gave the same impression.
So Pidcock set the record straight:
I answered those questions at length actually.
I’m not going to get into a Twitter spat about this, but there are some facts that need to be stated about a video that has been circulated from a press session I took part in yesterday morning. pic.twitter.com/yNHe4c6myj
— Laura Pidcock MP (@LauraPidcockMP) July 14, 2019
The corporate media has relentlessly reported on Labour and antisemitism, often with a disregard for the facts.
Disciplinary cases relating to antisemitism among Labour members since September 2015 relate to 0.06% of the party’s 540,000-strong membership. Labour says:
This represents a tiny minority, but one antisemite is one too many, and we will continue to act against this repugnant form of racism.
“That’s the threat”
And, speaking to the BBC at the event, Pidcock also said:
There isn’t any question about the Islamophobia in the Tory Party. Somebody that is about to be prime minister who has said some of the most reprehensible things about black people, about women, about gay people. That’s the threat to our communities, not Jeremy Corbyn – a lifelong antiracist and peace activist.
Labour right attacks
The fact that Pidcock did actually answer questions on antisemitism didn’t stop right-wing Labour MPs like Streeting publicly chastising her:
I appreciate hard questions on Labour’s appalling handling of antisemitism are uncomfortable, but if you’re a shadow minister get used to it. Better still, do something to sort it out. Attack racism, not the media. pic.twitter.com/tP0dgT4qwl
— Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) July 13, 2019
Even though journalists were present at the whole interview, Sky and HuffPost reported the matter as if Pidcock turned down answering any questions on antisemitism.
In short, the corporate media will set up pro-Corbyn Labour MPs wherever it can. But Pidcock set the record straight like a true statesperson. Bravo.
Featured image via YouTube – Ian McDonald
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In all of this, it is not Israel, but Palestine which is the issue. Friends of Israel in all political parties and their mouthpieces in the media have done their very best to suppress that fact, and to silence any voice that speaks out on behalf of Palestinians. And they have done it on behalf of the racist policies of a racist government which is steadily fragmenting Palestinian land in order to deter the possibility of a two state solution. The campaign against Corbyn is a deeply racist movement, and we should never forget that; because it has at its core the goal of “taking down” – as Shai Masot said he intended to do to Alan Duncan MP, for exactly the same reasons – the leader of the opposition precisely because he is a voice for an occupied people whose grievances it wishes to suppress. Most of those in politics and in our media screaming antisemitism at people who clearly are not antisemites, like Corbyn, are themselves rabid racists, or facilitators of rabidly racist policies, which is the same thing, who have helped to weaponise antisemitism ultimately to support what Ilan Pappe once described as the incremental genocide of the Palestinian people.
Forthestate oh so true. My view now is that any Labour MPs or shadow cabinet ministers who are interviewed by the Press at events which they are attending or at which they are Speakers should refuse to answer any questions on anti-Semitism on the basis that there is an EHCR investigation being undertaken at present. It is nothing more than a smokescreen to put these questions so that the focus is on a set of completely unwarranted allegations (i.e. anti-Semitism) and away from Labour Policy and its Manifesto – which is the most transformative and far reaching of any current political party.
The Labour NEC should now take a seriously firm stand against this anti-Semitism rubbish and issue a statement indicating they will make no further response to the MSM or the BBC on the subject. That it would wait and comment on the report that will be subsequently issued by the EHCR.
Tom Watson and other Labour Friends of Israel can do or say what they like because their goal is to do what their paymasters (i.e. the Israeli Embassy/Government) want them to do which is to bring Corbyn down. However, it is back firing on them isn’t it because all it is doing is fuelling anti-Semitism in society and increasing the Labour vote as the voters can see what this pile of doggy do really is. They are not interested in vague, unsubstantiated claims of Anti-Semitism, they are interested in their jobs, affordable housing, education, the NHS and other issues that affect them. Not this BS. The NEC need to now make a definitive statement and make no other comment. I believe there is some thought in the Labour Party that if they do not respond it might cost them the election. That’s utter rubbish. Truth will win the election and that is what most Labour supporters, MPs and voters want at the moment.
Don’t worry about the election – just be bold and make a statement saying there will be no more questions answered on anti-Semitism. Do as the Russian Federation has done, refuse to answer questions or comment on that which is reported in the Press as a fact when it is not.
“The Labour NEC should now take a seriously firm stand against this anti-Semitism rubbish and issue a statement indicating they will make no further response to the MSM or the BBC on the subject. That it would wait and comment on the report that will be subsequently issued by the EHRC.”
A good idea. It would be simple, uncontroversial and effective. Certainly many of us are increasingly frustrated by the failure of Corbyn and his supporters to counter false charges of antisemitism, in other words lies, the allegation that it is rife within the party when complaints involve 0.06% of the membership being one of them. To the extent that there is antisemitism in the party, those fanning the flames of that accusation in order to create the impression of a problem hugely disproportionate to the reality, for their own political agenda, have done any campaign against it a massive disservice, since that campaign is now widely regarded as primarily a campaign of smear, innuendo and disinformation in most areas beyond the Westminster bubble.
That was the frustration expressed by Chris Williamson. He was right. Nothing he said was remotely antisemitic. If I was Chris Williamson, I’d consider suing those who say it was. Let’s have some of these false accusations tried in court. It’s long overdue. And I would pay to see the BBC sued for contravening the terms of impartiality set out in its charter. The evidence, when it comes to Corbyn, is overwhelming, and it’s all recorded. I’m not a lawyer, but even I could win that case.
Forthestate. I have just finished the final draft of a comprehensive complaint against the BBC which I will submit to Ofcom at the weekend when I have made it the best possible. It is comprehensive and I have proven it is propaganda design to interfere with political decisions I believe. I am going to send that complaint to the Labour Press Office, RT UK and The Canary. Williamson was absolutely right. If his comments are what pass for anti-Semitism then it seem to me that just saying Israel amounts to the same thing. It is scandalous, fabricated and false.
You are right, I would like to see the Labour Party sue the BBC and the MSM Press for running a malicious, vicious campaign against Corbyn personally which has its foundations in pure hate and propaganda with the clear objective of preventing the election of a Labour Government. There is tons of evidence out there. I am going to make a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission about the Guardian and The Times about a couple of articles they have written.
We all need to start making these complaints against the MSM and the BBC it is the only way, it seems to me, that the MSM will be called to any sort of account. Keir Starmer is a brilliant lawyer, he should be able to advise the Labour Party of the way forward on legal action. The only thing I will add here is that I also believe this malicious anti-Semitism campaign against Labour and Corbyn which has now reached a level of totally irrational hysteria, is to shift the focus away from the orange baboon mini me (BoJo) ‘s continued idiotic, crass and bull shit he is spouting as part of his Leadership campaign. Oh, and the lies he is continuously telling during it.